


Precocious child

by Septic84



Series: Random one shots [6]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe Dan and Phil, M/M, Minor Character Death, Terminal Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27826033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Septic84/pseuds/Septic84
Summary: Dan and Phil's lives change and progress faster than they had anticipated.
Relationships: Dan Howell & Phil Lester, Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Series: Random one shots [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1568485





	Precocious child

Writing prompt:  
I had never met a precocious child.

“Is that a picture from that first weekend we fed them that Duncan drew?” I rested my head on Phil’s should, looking and the crudely drawn bird sitting and Phil filling up a feeder. His talents had grown so much now that he was starting secondary school, but this was still my favorite.  
Phil smiled, “Yeah, it is.”  
***  
Duncan was the neighbor’s son who lived in the apartment adjacent to us. They had moved in after we had already been there for about a year. He was 9; I had never met a precocious child, and I was enthralled. He was smart, sophisticated, and wise. We had met him in the hall; he explained to Phil that he was not very responsible, precariously balancing a hot Starbucks, shopping, and trying to unlock the door. I laughed out loud.  
“It would be better if you held the bags and he unlocked the door, or vise versa,” I laughed out loud. His mum Lila was embarrassed and apologized.  
“No, need. He’s not wrong,” I had responded.

Over the next several weeks, we had become closer to the kid, it was only him and his mother, and he was heartbreakingly lonely. We ran into him in the hall often. He always had a fact or an existential question or statement for us.  
“Why do you think that some people are rude for no reason?”  
“We should always be nice; we don’t need to hurt people.” He loved birds, he would watch the pigeons out of his windows, and he loved to tell us about them.  
“Did you know They use the sun as a guide and an internal ‘magnetic compass’?”  
“No, I didn’t. That’s fascinating.”  
“Indeed. They also can fly at altitudes up to and beyond 1,828 meters,”  
“Wow, that’s high!”  
“No, Dan, the common goose can fly 10,000 meters, that’s high.”  
I laughed, “that’s very true.” Soon month has passed, and when I didn’t run into him, I missed him.  
It was a Friday afternoon when our buzzer rang unexpectedly, it was Lila,  
“Hey, Phil,” I heard her say, “I have a huge favor to ask of you and Dan,”  
I stood beside Phil, “Shoot,”  
“My work is forcing me to go out of town, I tried to get out of it, but if I don’t go, I will be fired; and I know this is a lot to ask, but” She sighed, “I don’t know anyone else,”  
Phil glanced at me as he was already saying yes. “We’re happy to help,”  
“Thank you so much. I owe you both. I will pay you when I get back, you know,”  
“Not necessary,” I assured her.  
In an hour, we were armed with a list of phone numbers and a key to their apartment; Duncan was unusually quiet, clutching his bag, a pillow, and a teddy bear.  
“Hey, Dunc, what do you want for dinner?” He nervously glanced at me, “What’s up?”  
“I am uncomfortable with this circumstance, Dan.”  
“How so?” Phil asked.  
“My father left; he never came back,” there were tears in his eyes. My face fell; Duncan was so advanced in his communication skills that I forgot that he was still a 9-year-old kid. “If my mum doesn’t come back, I have no one else to go to,”  
“Your mum will come back,” Phil smiled at him, “she had to go out of town for work, she will be back.”  
“What if she doesn’t?”  
“Then we will go find her,” I offered, and he seemed to accept it. “We usually have takeaway on Fridays. Is that okay with you?”  
He smiled a little, “pizza?” he asked hopefully.  
“You read my mind, here give me your things, I’ll set them in the spare, and you go with Phil and get whatever you want.”  
“Really??”  
“Really.”  
Duncan’s mother did come back, at least that time. In the following year, Duncan stayed with us several times; we had taken him to movies, arcades, and played many video games with him. We had taken him to an amusement park for his tenth birthday, where they learned that Duncan did not like roller coasters, nor could he eat two hot dogs beforehand. We all were growing very fond of each other, an unconventional family of sorts. Lately, Lila had several more appointments, and it was starting to become concerning; I was reasonably sure she was sick. Phil had taken Duncan on an overnight trip to see a traveling bird museum that was in London. I had to say to attend a work meeting, so Phil agreed to go solo. I was unlocking the flat door after when Lila poke her head out.  
“Hey, Dan, can I talk to you for a bit?”  
“Um, yeah, sure, you want to come in here, or?”  
“No, here. I need to lay back down.”  
I followed her into the lounge; there were several medical things there, the kitchen table was littered with medications and paperwork.  
“Lila?”  
She laid back down on the sofa, “Dan, I am dying.”  
“What,” I swallowed,” do you mean?”  
“Don’t be obtuse,”  
“Right, sorry,”  
“I don’t know how much longer I have, Dan. I need you to,” she paused, putting her head in her hands, “I need you and Phil to take Duncan.”  
“What?”  
“I have no one else, I have parents somewhere that I hadn’t spoken to since I was 16 when I escaped, his father left, I looked, but even if I wanted to send Duncan to him, he is dead. I don’t want him stuck in the system,”  
I took a deep breath. Could Phil and I do this? On the other hand, how could we not? “This is a large ask, Lila.”  
“Well, no shit, Dan. I know. I don’t want to die, but I am going to nonetheless,”  
“Lila, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean,” she waved me off.  
“I know. I know." "I have to talk to Phil; how would that even work?”  
“Well, you guys have been together for a while. Haven’t you ever thought of adopting?”  
“Well, not this soon, honestly.”  
“There isn’t really a way to ask your neighbors to raise your child, he loves you both, and you seem to love him,”  
I started to tear up, “We do, Lila, we don’t know how to raise a child,”  
“I have faith in you, both of you. It may not be fair of me to say this, but this is the only way that I can die peacefully.”

Once Phil had dropped Duncan off and was settled, I motioned for him to sit next to me.  
“Hey, we need to talk,”  
“Okay, but first, do you know what’s going on with Lila? She looks extremely sick,”  
“She is. That’s what we need to talk about,” I laid out paperwork in front of him.  
“What’s all of this?”  
“Phil, Lila is dying,” There wasn’t even an option that this wasn’t going to happen. Phil knew instantly what I was asking and dropped to one knee.

Lila was able to come to our courtroom wedding that happened precisely two weeks after that conversation. Only her, Duncan and our immediate families attended; It wasn’t the proposal Phil had intended, nor the wedding that I had, but it was necessary. We always knew we were to be married; the current circumstance just escalated it. I wasn’t sure if Lila had been speaking with Duncan about her condition, but if she hadn’t, she would soon. The adoption hearing was the following week. Everything was moving so fast; I was more and more on edge. Had we made a mistake? Were Phil and I actually able to do this? How were we going to be parents to this kid? He was more intelligent than the two of us combine.  
“It’s going to be okay, you know.”  
“Yeah,”  
“No, I’m serious, we can do this,” Phil kissed the top of my head.  
“We are going to be okay,” I affirmed, “I’m just scared,”  
“I would be concerned if you weren’t. In less than a month, we got married and are going to adopt a child.”

We were now the legal guardians of Duncan. He was still staying with Lila for the most part, though everyone knew that wasn’t going to be the case for much longer. Lila was sleeping more, and I knew that she would have to go to the hospital sooner or later. Phil would go over there and sit with them in the evenings; I took the morning shifts. We were lucky that we ran our own business, allowing us to set our own hours. Duncan had all but shut down; gone were there curious questions and profound statements. I knew this would happen; I just didn’t know how sad it would make me. How do you support someone watching their mother die? This continued for about three weeks.  
We both now were stationed in their living room, waiting for the inevitable. Lila looked so frail; Duncan did not leave her side. That kid was tough.  
“Dan,” Phil urged softly as I got lost in thoughts. “We have to go to the hospital,”  
“Oh,” I glanced at her and knew he was right, “Okay,”

The service was simple and beautiful; Lila had died as peacefully as she could, knowing that her son was going to be okay. At least as okay as he could be, considering he had watched his mother die at the age of 10. We slept at their apartment for the next three nights; we wanted to make sure Duncan had time to process in his own room. We were taking turns as we were trying to get a new place ourselves. We had always known that we would move to London, now seemed to be the right time to do it.

A week had passed, we were starting to get both apartments packed to move to the new flat. Duncan was sitting in the middle of his bedroom floor, putting things into a box. We had discussed donating some to a charity shop, but he seemed to be having trouble.  
“What’s up?”  
“I just don’t know what I have to get rid of,”  
“Well, you don’t “have” to get rid of anything if you don’t want to,”  
“I don’t?”  
“Nope. If there are somethings you don’t want, you can put them in the donate box; otherwise, just pack them.” I pulled out the sharpie and put big x’s on the flaps on one of the boxes. “Use this if you find anything to give, and then we can make sure. We will check the boxes before we donate them,”  
He smiled at me, “Thanks, Dan.”  
The week after we moved into the apartment, we realized that we had a small balcony that the penguins lived; Duncan was over the moon. We started to feed the pigeons, well, Phil mostly did, and Duncan began to take an interest in drawing. He was grieving, and he is adjusting. The therapist we schedule appointments with told us he was doing remarkably well given the circumstances.  
It took about two weeks, and we started to see the little boy we had grown to know so well.  
“Dan,”  
“What’s up,”  
“Did you know that a “stooping” peregrine is undoubtedly the fastest flying bird?”  
“No, I didn’t; where did you learn that?”  
He rolled his eyes, “Google,”  
“Of course,”  
“Where do you think my mom is?”  
“Ah,”  
“I don’t know what to think. Phil said she was in heaven,”  
“Where do you think she is?”  
He thought for a moment and smiled. “Here,” he pointed at his heart.  
My tears rolled down my cheek as I pulled him into a hug. “You’re absolutely right,” I choked out.

It was the first day at his new school, we all took a car together to get him there. We were introduced to the teacher, we talked to the administration, and it was time for us to leave.  
“We’ll be here when you’re done,” Phil handed him his lunch box.  
“You promise?”  
“Yes, we promise. Then we will go home and feed your birds.”  
“Okay,” he hesitated before tumbling into me for a hug, “Bye, Dad,”  
“See you later,” I whispered out, watching his teacher usher him into the classroom.  
“You okay, dad?” Phil asked, putting his hand on my shoulder.  
“Let’s go home so we can pick him up again,” linking my hand with his, we started to walk back to the car that was waiting.  
“I told you it was going to be okay.”  
“No one likes an, “I told you so,” guy, Phil,” He smirked at me but he was right. This was not how I saw myself a year ago, or even 5 months ago, but there was nowhere else I’d rather be.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a prompt you'd like written, let me know. I am going to try to post a lot of one-shots before 2020 ends.  
> Reach out:  
> <https://www.tumblr.com/blog/septic84>


End file.
